Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Allergy Treatments: Wake Up and Smell the Alternatives

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

By Dr. Manny Alvarez


Every spring the clocks jump ahead, and our desires to shed the oppressive layers of winter takes hold. We breathe in the fresh spring air and it overtakes us, literally. It happens as soon as we fling open our windows.

We are seized by uncontrollable sneezing, itchy eyes, and an uncomfortable tickle gripping the back of our throats. These physical reactions let us know loud and clear that another season of the year has arrived -- allergy season.

The same blooming flowers and trees we dreamed of enjoying over the last four months now make us teary-eyed, running straight for the tissue box. This is the unfortunate irony of spring - beautiful but miserable.

According to a recent article in the U.S. News & World Report, allergies are plaguing up to 30 percent of all adults and 40 percent of all children in the United States. In other terms, 26.1 million Americans experience hay fever symptoms each year. That's a lot of nose blowing, and the numbers only seems be increasing.

Allergy Alternatives

Contrary to some conventional medical beliefs, which claim the best way to control your allergies is to avoid the very things that are causing them, many alternative sciences such as Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine believe the true keys to allergy prevention are treating underlying causes while building up the body's immune system.

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"The long term solution to getting rid of allergies is to not just quell the symptoms but to delve into the root cause of them", claims Danny Arguetty, an alternative health counselor and nutritionist at the Kripalu Health Center in Lenox, Mass. "To do this", he adds, "you must strengthen your immune system, which is often sluggish and taxed from over indulging during the winter months. However, it is important to do this before allergy season kicks in, and then maintain a healthy life- style in order to effectively withstand allergens."

Spring Cleaning for Your Body

Naturally flushing your body of the toxins responsible for dampening your immune system - making you less adaptable to seasonal and climate changes - should be viewed similarly to cleaning your house or taking your car for a tune-up. Bodies will function optimally when they are cleaned and cared for.

"You don't have to do an extreme fast or detox to rekindle your immune system", says Arguetty. "There are many easy life-style and diet alternatives that you can implement that will help your body better adapt to the change of seasons and ultimately keep you allergy free."

Danny's top five things to avoid before and during allergy season:

1) Heavy, cold, hard to digest foods such as: ice cream, ice-cold food and drinks, heavy desserts, oily or fried foods, red meat and hard cheeses

2) Pre-packaged, canned, frozen or processed foods of any kind

3) Consuming caffeine and alcohol

4) Extreme temperature contrasts, for example, going from a very warm or hot environment to a very cold environment

5) Going to bed late and sleeping in late

Alternative Therapies to Treat Allergies

1) Eat a light nourishing diet of cooked, lightly spiced organic fresh vegetables, sweet ripe fruits, whole grains and legumes/beans for protein

2) Season your food with immunity enhancing and anti-allergic spices such as, turmeric, fennel, coriander, black pepper, and fresh ginger root. Danny recommends cooking these spices in a little bit of olive oil or ghee (clarified butter) to help release the spice's flavors and medicinal properties

3) Sip plain hot water and detoxifying teas such as, echinacea, ginseng, dandelion and ginger, throughout the day

4) Keep your house and office on the cooler side, so your body will transition easier to the outside temperature without sending your body into shock

5) Install an air purifier and a water purifier in your house or office. Alternatively, keep air-purifying plants, such as spider plants or holy basil

6) Get plenty of rest at the right times of day -- it is best to go to bed before 10pm and get up before 7am.

Arguetty concludes, "Going into allergy season with a strong immunity will decrease your likelihood of being vulnerable to all the beauty that nature has to offer us this time of year, which no one should have to avoid."

So why not make your life more active rather than reactive this allergy season? Use this time of year as an opportunity to cook delicious fresh seasonal foods and spice them up with "medicine" that tastes great as well. Cleaning out all the dusty corners of your body will allow you totruly enjoy spring - all while building long-term health.

FoxNews.com health writer Kyle Ellen Nuse contributed to this report.

For more great information on living healthy through every decade of life, click here to check out Dr. Manny's book The Check List (Harper Collins, 2007).

Dr. Manny Alvarez is the managing editor of health news at FOXNews.com, and is a regular medical contributor on the FOX News Channel. He is chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. Additionally, Alvarez is Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York University School of Medicine in New York City.
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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Good news for slackers: naps can help the heart

Daytime snooze cuts risk of fatal heart attack by 37 percent, study finds

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• Benefits to napping at work
Feb. 13: Research shows midday snoozes at least three times a week, benefit the heart by reducing stress. MSNBC.com's Dara Brown has the story.

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Updated: 10:45 a.m. CT Feb 13, 2007

CHICAGO - Office nappers now have the perfect excuse: New research shows that a little midday snooze seems to reduce the risk of fatal heart problems, especially among men.

In the largest study to date on the health effects of napping, researchers tracked 23,681 healthy Greek adults for an average of about six years. Those who napped for about half an hour at least three times weekly had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from heart attacks or other heart problems than those who did not nap.

Most participants were in their 50s, and the strongest evidence was in working men, according to the study, which appears in Monday’s issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

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The researchers said naps might benefit the heart by reducing stress, and jobs are a common source of stress.

It’s likely that women reap similar benefits from napping, but not enough of them died during the study to be sure, said Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, the study’s senior author and a researcher at Harvard University and the University of Athens Medical School.

Heart problems killed 48 women who were studied, six of them working women, compared with 85 men, including 28 working men.

Janet Hamlin / AP
A daytime siesta has long been part of many cultures, especially those in warmer climates. Mediterranean-style eating habits featuring fruits, vegetables, beans and olive oil have been credited with contributing to relatively low rates of heart disease in those countries, but the researchers wanted to see if napping also plays a role.

“My advice is if you can (nap), do it. If you have a sofa in your office, if you can relax, do it,” Trichopoulos said.

Exactly how stress is related to heart disease is uncertain. Some researchers think it might be directly involved, through unhealthy effects of stress hormones, or indirectly by causing people to exercise less, overeat or smoke.

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The researchers in the latest study factored in diet, exercise, smoking and other habits that affect the heart but still found napping seemed to help.

Too stressed for a siesta
Previous studies have had conflicting results. Some suggested napping might increase risk of death, but those mostly involved elderly people whose daytime sleepiness reflected poor health, Trichopoulos said.

His research team studied a broader range of people, ages 20 to 86, who were generally healthy when the study began.

Still, it’s possible that study participants who napped “are just people who take better care of themselves,” which could also benefit the heart, said Dr. Marvin Wooten, a sleep specialist at Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee.

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“The guy ... who doesn’t take time out for a siesta in their culture is probably the guy who is extremely driven and under a lot of pressure,” which could increase heart risks, he said.

Siestas aren’t ingrained in U.S. culture, and napping usually is equated with laziness in the high-charging corporate world, said Bill Anthony, a Boston University psychologist and co-author of “The Art of Napping at Work.”

Still, some offices allow on-the-job naps, and many workers say it makes them more, not less, productive.

Energizing snooze

More news from MSN Health
Yarde Metals, a metals distributing firm, built a nap room at its Southington, Conn., headquarters as part of an employee wellness program. With two leather sofas, fluffy pillows, soft lighting and an alarm clock, it’s the perfect place for a quick snooze, engineer Mark Ekenbarger said.

Ekenbarger, 56, has an enlarged heart artery and said he frequently takes half-hour naps on the advice of his doctor to reduce stress.

“It really does energize me for the rest of the day,” Ekenbarger said.

“It would be really encouraging if employers across the country really embraced that philosophy that napping is a good thing. It makes a big difference in my life.”

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17115245/wid/11915773/
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Sunday, March 11, 2007

Creatine May Limit Brain Damage

By Elaine Zablocki
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Jacqueline Brooks, MRCPsych, MBBCH

Nov. 2, 2000 -- The dietary supplement creatine is widely used by athletes to increase muscle mass and performance. Now a new study, conducted in animals, suggests that it may also protect against damage due to brain injury in people.

"Professional quarterbacks in the NFL sustain many concussions, with less damage than we might expect," senior author Stephen W. Scheff, PhD, tells WebMD. "That could be because they're taking creatine." Scheff is professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine and associate director of basic research at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, both in Lexington.

In this study, published in the November issue of The Annals of Neurology, researchers fed rats and mice a diet high in creatine, and then simulated a concussion. They found that rats who ate a creatine diet for four weeks had a 50% reduction in brain damage, compared to rats on a normal diet. Mice who received three days of creatine pretreatment had a 21% decline in damaged cells, while those who received five days of creatine pretreatment had a 36% decline.

This doesn't mean you should eat creatine ahead of time before having a concussion, because concussions obviously aren't planned. But because these animal studies show creatine works by increasing energy production in the part of the brain cells responsible for generating the body's energy, called the mitochondria, it may be possible to find a substance that has a similar effect if taken soon after a concussion or brain injury. Scheff and other researchers have looked at several substances and are now conducting tests on one promising possibility.

Just as important, creatine may be valuable in several diseases where mitochondrial dysfunction plays a role. According to Sinclair Smith, ScD, many previous studies have indicated that creatine has the capacity to protect nerves. These reports have shown that it has good results in Lou Gehrig's disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS) and multiple sclerosis among others, he tells WebMD. Smith is an assistant professor of physiology in the occupational therapy department at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

He believes creatine could potentially assist in treatment of diseases involving nerves and muscle. "I don't expect it will be a cure, but it may slow the disease process. Future research needs to focus on how creatine works in humans, and how it works in conjunction with other treatments. This is a hot area right now."

Head injuries predispose people to early onset of Alzheimer's disease, though no one knows why. This suggests creatine might also possibly slow Alzheimer's progression, Scheff speculates. "We don't know if it will stave off the disease, but it might be worth investigating."

However, since creatine is a nutritional supplement, it isn't regulated by the FDA, and it hasn't been tested for safety in human beings. At the same time, lots of athletes are taking it, and lots of health food stores are selling it.

Last May, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association released a statement warning about potential negative consequences of creatine. Although there have been no formal studies, observers say it may be linked to cramps, diarrhea, nausea, dizziness, high blood pressure, and liver and kidney problems.

But Scheff says creatine is an inexpensive substance with no known side effects. "Three grams of creatine per day is a maintenance dose," he says. "I buy it at the local grocery store before I go skiing."

Edward J. Kasarskis, MD, PhD, agrees creatine may play a valuable role in fighting diseases of the nervous system. When mice with ALS are fed creatine, they live longer, he tells WebMD. Now studies are planned to test creatine in humans with ALS. Meanwhile, since creatine is readily available, many of these patients are already taking it on their own.

"When people are faced with a desperate disease that has no effective treatment, they don't worry about side effects. They're eager to try something that may prolong life. We don't encourage them; we don't discourage them. Is creatine safe and effective for this condition? We don't know," says Kasarskis, a professor of neurology at the University of Kentucky's Chandler Medical Center and a member of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association's Subcommittee on Gulf War Veterans and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.



http://www.webmd.com/news/20001102/creatine-may-limit-brain-damage

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